Thailand must face global condemnation for its decision to forcibly return Uyghur detainees to China, from a Bangkok detention centre, Rushan Abbas, executive director of the Campaign for Uyghurs, said in a statement.
“These deportations expose the ugly reality that, for many governments, human lives are negotiable and are traded away for political or economic interests,” Abbas said.
Abbas’s statement confirms the forced repatriation early this morning of Uyghurs, who had been detained in Thailand for eleven years.
At about 2am, six police vans, with covered windows, left the Suan Plu detention centre, where 48 Uyghurs had been held.
The vehicles are believed to have been transporting the detainees directly to Don Mueang Airport, to board a China Airlines flight at about 4am.
According to Abbas, the forced deportation is a “death sentence carried out in plain sight” and marks yet another dark chapter in the ongoing Uyghur genocide.
“Those individuals fled persecution in China seeking safety, only to be handed back to their oppressors; delivered straight into the hands of a regime that has orchestrated mass atrocities against our people.
Thailand’s decision, made under pressure from the Chinese government, sends a chilling message to other countries that no Uyghur seeking safety is truly safe,” claimed Abbas.
